Farming rabbits for meat is an intensive industry and, like other intensive industries, this results in a number of welfare concerns. These concerns arise from the confinement of animals in a way that prevents them from moving freely or which does not satisfy their behavioural, social and physiological needs.

Rabbits bred for meat are generally housed in wire mesh cages that are suspended above the floor. Cages may be placed in single tiers in rows within a shed, or may consist of various tiers (i.e. cages placed on top of each other) with droppings diverted away from lower cages.  In these cages, growing rabbits are provided with a floor area of only 0.07-0.18 square metres each.

Rabbits are curious and intelligent animals that need exercise, stimulation and things to chew on – natural behaviours that cannot be expressed in the cages in which these animals are kept.

With the growth in demand for rabbit meat, the RSPCA would like to see the industry move away from small cages and towards systems that can properly cater for all of the health, welfare and behavioural needs of rabbits, while at the same time keeping them securely contained to prevent escape. Such systems may involve rabbits being housed in small social groups in pens with straw bedding as well as tunnels to provide some form of environmental enrichment.

Minimum guidelines for the care and management of farmed rabbits can be found in the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals: Intensive Husbandry of Rabbits ( http://www.publish.csiro.au/Books/download.cfm?ID=369).